In 1856, just months after Britain and Siam had finalized the historic Bowring trade treaty that would prevent the countries colonization, the violent death of a Siamese official at the new British consulate threatens to scuttle the deal and lead to war. The King and the Consul explores UK and Thai archives to reveal the twists, turns and tensions of this little-known episode that pitted Thailand’s renowned King Mongkut, Rama IV, against the first British Consul, Charles Hillier. The crisis was resolved without war, but not without cost for the participants who suffered unintended tragic outcomes. By examining the background to this tragedy, the book reveals how history has often overlooked the importance of an issue that lay behind it the right of foreigners to own land in the country, and issue that continues to be a thorn in the side of Thailand’s foreign relations to this day.
“The tragic deaths in 1856 of the first British consul to Siam and a Siamese official had an unusual impact on Thailand‘s property law and Britain’s diplomatic presence in the country. This intriguing book could only be written by someone with long residence in Bangkok, through knowledge of Thailand’s property law, and enthusiasm for history. Simon Landy gives us a slice of legal and diplomatic history with close attention to its human dimensions. An unusual and lovely read” – Chris Baker
For most of us the Gita evokes an image of Krishna addressing Arjuna who is dutifully kneeling before him with folded hands, with a chariot and the battlefield as a backdrop. We have seen versions of this image on wall calendars, diaries, amateur paintings, and on walls of religious spaces. Year after year, our exposure to the Gita remains limited to these fleeting visual engagements as they become part of our muscle memory as we go about our chores.
This book, as the title suggests, decodes life lessons from each section of the Gita, looking at this ancient text through a 21st century prism. Far from being a mere compilation of selected didactic verses, this narrative skillfully strings together 251 verses of the Gita. It deciphers each of them, and presents the takeaways as tools to face situations of modern-day distress, dilemma and inner conflict.
Written from the perspective of a non-ritualistic individual, the book connects the teachings of the Gita with current concepts of life skills. It also reiterates the relevance of a text written thousands of years ago, and showcases its contemporary value by drawing parallels with our day-to-day existence today.
John Ruskin assembled 1470 diverse works of art for use in the Drawing School he founded at Oxford in 1871. They included drawings by himself and other artists, prints and photographs. This book focuses on highlights of works produced by Ruskin himself. Drawings by John Ruskin are uniquely interesting. Unlike those of a professional artist they were not made in preparation for finished paintings or as works in their own right. Every one – and they number several thousand, depending on what can be considered a separate drawing – is a record of something seen, initially as a memorandum of that observation but with the potential to illustrate his writings or for educational purposes, notably to form part of the teaching collection of the Drawing School he established after election as Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University. In addition, because of the range of interests of arguably the only true polymath of his time, every drawing touches on some interesting aspect of art and architecture, landscape and travel, botany and natural history, often connected with his writings and lectures. Ruskin’s life is one of the best documented of any in the 19th century, through letters, diaries and the many autobiographical revelations in his published writings: this allows the opportunity to give almost any drawing a level of context impossible for any other artist. When there is so much background information, a single drawing reveals much about its creator, and becomes a window into the great sprawling edifice of his life and work.
Beautifully produced facsimile of a watercolor artist’s book recording many of the most fascinating birds and animals of the Galápagos Islands. Profits to go to the Galápagos Trust.
Pio Abad’s artistic practice is concerned with the personal and political entanglements of objects. His wide-ranging body of work, encompassing drawing, painting, textiles, installation and text, mines alternative or repressed historical events and offers counternarratives that draw out threads of complicity between incidents, ideologies and people. Deeply informed by unfolding events in the Philippines, where the artist was born and raised, his work emanates from a family narrative woven into the nation’s story. Abad’s parents were at the forefront of the anti-dictatorship struggle in the Philippines during the 1970s and 80s and it is the need to remember this history that has shaped the foundations of his work.
This beautifully designed book accompanies the Ashmolean Museum’s second exhibition of its new Ashmolean NOW series, featuring the work of Pio Abad. Abad’s artistic practice is concerned with the personal and political entanglements of objects. His wide-ranging body of work, which includes drawing, painting, installation, textiles and text, mines alternative or repressed historical events, offering counternarratives. Abad’s new works link narratives found in the Museum’s collections and Oxford with his personal life in the UK and Philippines, where the artist was born and raised. The book features a new text by Abad and contributions by art historical experts including Dan Hicks.
Munch’s Missing! Find the artist hidden in 12 vibrant illustrated scenes which are inspired by the artist’s life, and the themes in his art. Spot him on the hill where he famously heard that resounding scream; find him hidden on stage amongst actors performing an Ibsen play, and search him out in the forest near his home in Ekely. Every scene is jammed with artists and creatives who have been influenced by Munch.
While the magical illustrations by Celyn Brazier offer a playful introduction to the artist, they are a unique piece of art in themselves. Accompanying text opens up the stories behind the illustrations, and explores further Munch’s life and art, and the influence he had.
This raucous art journey celebrates the startling relevance of Munch who brought us the selfie and liberated us to scream out!
Kindred Spirits showcases the remarkable flowering of Chinese style ceramics that took place in Japan after the mid-19th century. For over a thousand years, Chinese ceramics have been admired and emulated in Japan. This book discusses for the first time how this artistic relationship evolved during the Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa eras. A selection of 100 works from the acclaimed Shen Zhai Collection demonstrates the range and quality of these ceramics, from elegant celadons to sophisticated underglaze blue porcelains. Detailed descriptions, makers’ marks, and box inscriptions make this a valuable reference resource for collectors and art historians.
This major retrospective catalogue accompanies the first institutional exhibition focusing on the visual works of art by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke. The majority of the paintings, drawings and digital works were specifically made for Yorke’s internationally celebrated band Radiohead, formed in Oxford in 1985. The book is beautifully designed in the same size as a record cover and features iconic artworks from the 1980s until today, relating to Radiohead albums, their covers and promotional band images, as well as sketchbooks and rare materials from their archives that have never before been published. It offers fresh views on the art of album covers, exploring the complex relationship between visual art and music.
Radiohead was formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The collaboration with the artist Stanley Donwood began in 1994 when the band was developing their second album, The Bends, which was released on 13th March, 1995. 2025 is therefore the 40-year anniversary of the band and the 30-year anniversary of the release of The Bends. The catalogue’s focus is upon the art produced by both Stanley Donwood and the band’s lead vocalist, Thom Yorke presented chronologically. Radiohead’s popularity has never waned and they have a strong core following and new fans (many of who are the children of ‘original’ fans).
The high-quality reproductions are complemented by exclusive interviews with the artists, and essays by Alex Farquharson, Nico Kos Earle, Benjamin Myers, James Putnam and Jennifer Ramkalawon.
A major retrospective is held at the Ashmolean Museum from August 2025 to January 2026.
Birmingham (UK) born and based Ben Sadler’s colorful painted portraits of imaginary people are full of personality, eclectic states of mind, and varying degrees of intrigue. They are also sometimes evocative, emotive, and amusing. The publication features two bodies of work: You and I (2024) and Exclamations! (2023), both of which present small paintings corresponding to each letter of the alphabet (though the letters U and I are curiously missing from the series You and I). The starting point was the idea of visitors to an imaginary exhibition––who are they, what kinds of people are they, and what thoughts are going through their minds? Such questions are explored in celebrated Birmingham-based author Catherine O’Flynn’s text commissioned for the publication, along with a foreword by Deborah Kermode, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, and an interview by London-based creative coach, podcaster, and public speaker Ceri Hand.
Radiant City is a major monograph documenting a decade of figurative and geometric work by London-based British contemporary artist Lucy Williams (b. 1972, Oxford). Her mixed-media bas-relief collages depict modernist architecture and interiors, from tower blocks and municipal buildings to private residences in Palm Springs.
All made painstakingly by hand, this is a contemporary art practice that, with the precision of an architect or a draughts person, references craft traditions, using materials including paper, Plexiglas, wood veneer, fabric, piano wire, and thread. Space, form, pattern, design, and geometry meet with color and light to form mesmerizing, detailed scenes such as tiled swimming pools with mosaic walls, the imposing facades of Brutalist buildings, and domestic interiors containing bookcases replete with books, vases and ornaments.
In addition to figurative works, the publication also features the artist’s Threaded Collages, abstract geometric pieces inspired by Bauhaus tapestries, constructivism and traditional Welsh quilting. Williams creates repeated triangular and diamond forms, using colorful painted papers along with silk and cotton threads.
Featuring a variety of text contributions, this, Williams’s second trade monograph, has been designed by Kristin Metho, edited by Matt Price, and produced by Hurtwood. It is published by Hurtwood with generous support from Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco.
The Baliem valley lies in Papua, a remote eastern region of Indonesia and home to some of the last peoples on earth to come into contact with modern civilization. When anthropologist O.W. Hampton visited in the 1980s, he found isolated peoples using stone tools, spears, and bows and arrows. Over the following ten years he documented life in the valley, including the making of stone axes and adzes—the last such tools to be in daily use on our planet. He collected sacred stones wrapped in orchid fiber and feathers, tools, net bags, and many other objects, and documented their uses in rituals of war and healing. In this book, author Christopher Buckley presents Hampton’s fieldwork alongside new studio photographs of his collection with detailed explanations.
The book will be of value to archaeologists, anthropologists, students, collectors and curators of Papuan art, and anyone with an interest in how mankind lived in millennia past.
A journey through art and material culture on the transformational impact of plants and plant collecting. Accompanies a major exhibition to be held at the Ashmolean from March to the end of August 2026.
The Art & Times of Daniel Jocz presents the entrancing and challenging work of American jewelry artist and sculptor Daniel Jocz. There is a spontaneous quality to the work, yet it is always rich with meaning. His open spirit is fully embodied in the 2007 neckpiece series An American’s Riff on the Millstone Ruff. Inspired by the extravagant scale of 17th-century Dutch ruffs at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, he decided to update them with automobile paint.
Jeannine Falino takes an in-depth look at the twists and turns of Jocz’s long career, from his early geometric sculptures to the fashion-forward flocked Candy Wear collection, and from his ruminations on Marlene Dietrich in the form of necklaces featuring enamel smoked cigarettes to the wall reliefs he explores today. Wendy Steiner considers Jocz’s place in the avant-garde through the lens of fashion and culture, while Patricia Harris and David Lyon explore his involvement in the rollicking Boston jewelry scene of the late 20th century.
“I have an old camera with which I have taken countless photographs of myself. It often produces astonishing effects”, Edvard Munch states in a 1930 interview. “Someday when I am old and have nothing better to do than work on an autobiography, all my photographic self-portraits will see the light of day again.” The autobiography was never realized, but the self-portraits have found their way to the pages of The Experimental Self. The Photography of Edvard Munch, which demonstrates the fundamentally experimental nature of the artist’s photographic practice. As a photographer, Munch embraced the freedom provided by the amateur position, and the unpredictable aspects of analogue photographic technology. By playfully approaching his own image in picture after picture, Munch extends his explorations of selfhood in other media through photography. The resulting photographs provide unique access to Munch’s radical artistic vision, which this book studies through eminent essays by Patricia G. Berman, Tom Gunning and MaryClaire Pappas.
Miami is a city in constant motion, where luxury high-rises reshape the skyline and vibrant art, neon-lit beaches, and tropical charm create a one-of-a-kind atmosphere. Beyond the lively nightlife lies the serene paradise of the Keys, a chain of islands steeped in history, hidden gems, and sun-soaked adventures.
This guide uncovers Miami and the Keys’ most unusual experiences, inviting you to explore places you’ve passed or never noticed. Discover rotating art displays in a millionaire’s mansion, dance to Latin rhythms in Little Havana, or slide down a two-story chute into a shopping haven.
Dive into crystal-clear waters to explore pirate shipwrecks, visit the country’s smallest post office, or track down Florida’s elusive Skunk Ape. Seek tranquility at a tropical Buddhist temple, stroll through mango groves, and celebrate sunsets at the southernmost point of the U.S. 111 places are waiting to reveal the magic of Miami and the Keys.
Travel today is fast, comfortable, and accessible to many. But between the 17th and early 19th centuries, it was a privilege reserved for the elite. Young British aristocrats would embark on a Grand Tour as the final stage of their education. Italy was the highlight of this cultural journey, with visits to Rome, Florence, Venice, and Mount Vesuvius. Along the way, they admired art and architecture, forged connections, and refined their taste—often returning home with artworks and souvenirs to adorn their country estates.
It wasn’t just young men who traveled; entire families journeyed across Europe in grand entourages. What inspired them to set out, which routes did they take, and what treasures did they bring back?
This book explores those journeys and presents a remarkable selection of artworks brought home from three of England’s finest stately homes: Holkham Hall, Burghley House, and Woburn Abbey.
We the Forest aims to ‘rewild the imagination’ by opening children’s eyes afresh to the wonder of forests through a meld of science and contemporary artwork. New scientific discoveries show that the interconnectedness of the forest runs deeper than we ever imagined. This title explores how all life in the forest is linked and our own human connection to and dependence on the forest.
Engaging text evokes the magic of forests – from how trees communicate to their superpowers of regeneration and protection of the planet – accompanied by commissioned illustrations. Interspersed throughout are arresting artworks inspired by forests from a wide variety of contemporary artists: learn to speak in ‘tree’ with Katie Holten’s tree alphabet, peer through Levon Biss’s lens to see what a giant beetle would look like, or witness the terrible beauty of forest fires in Jeff Frost’s photos. Interactive elements encourage the reader in their own creative projects.
Personal and private outdoor space is becoming ever-more elusive as urban areas become more crowded due to population growth and increasing development. Urban Oasis: Tranquil Outdoor Spaces at Home explores projects from London to New York and Sydney to San Francisco that reveal inspirational designs of rooftops, garden spaces, outdoor rooms, terraces and courtyards, and provide refuge from the modern world with private pockets of paradise. These outdoor spaces provide relaxing, sociable, and plant-filled settings for residents to savor peace and calm, and the company of family and friends.
Over the last few years, the oeuvre of Mary Bauermeister (*1934) has been extensively rediscovered and celebrated. Today, she is considered to be one of Germany’s leading female post-war artists. In the early 1960s, her studio in Cologne, located at Lintgasse 28, was the meeting place for artists, poets and composers such as Nam June Paik, Christo, Joseph Beuys, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, her future husband. They all used experimental music, readings, exhibitions, performances and happenings to explore the limits of social norms. Soon afterwards, Bauermeister moved to New York for a time, where she gained international acclaim.
This book is the first to take a close look at those works in which Bauermeister privileges language as a means of artistic expression. She uses cyphers, symbols and textual fragments from nature, science, academia, philosophy, mathematics, music and art to create sensual, poetic drawings, collages and objects. Bauermeister first won fame with her celebrated ‘lens boxes’ in which convex glass, magnifiers and prisms merge with optically distorted images and words, forming magical cabinets of wonder.
Text in English and German.
This second book in the Aboriginal Arts and Knowledge series documents a body of work created cooperatively by 4 artists: Ted Egan Tjangala, Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa, Johnny Possum Tjapaltjarri and Albie Morris Tjampitjinpa. Wamulu, a yellow flower, has traditionally been used during ritual ceremonies in the western desert of Australia. The wamulu flower is gathered, dried, cut up, and mixed with ochre and binders before being applied to the ground. This catalog for an exhibition at the Fondation Opale showcases an exceptional project that took place near Alice Springs between 2002 and 2005, where this collective of artists used paint made from the wamulu flower, which is most often associated with impermanence, to create contemporary and permanent works of art. At the same time, they honored the traditional Aboriginal process of communal performance, participation, and song that emphasizes the link between the present and the past. Includes an interview with the noted Aboriginal art expert Arnaud Serval, who facilitated the work of the collective.
Text in English and French.
“Terry was everywhere in the ’60s – he knew everything and everyone that was happening” – Keith Richards
Terry O’Neill (1938-2019) was one of the world’s most celebrated and collected photographers. No one captured the front line of fame so broadly – and for so long. Terry O’Neill’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Album contains some of the most famous and powerful music photographs of all time. At the same time, the book includes many intimate personal photos taken ‘behind the scenes’ and at private functions.
Terry O’Neill photographed the giants of the music world – both on and off-stage. For more than fifty years he captured those on the front line of fame in public and in private. David Bowie, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Amy Winehouse, Dean Martin, The Who, Janis Joplin, AC/DC, Eric Clapton, Sammy Davis Jnr., The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck Berry and The Beatles – to name only a few. O’Neill spent more than 30 years photographing Frank Sinatra as his personal photographer, with unprecedented access to the star. He took some of the earliest known photographs of The Beatles, and then forged a lifetime relationship with members of the band that allowed him to photograph their weddings and other private moments. It is this contrast between public and private that makes Terry O’Neill’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Album such a powerful document.
Without a doubt, Terry O’Neill’s work comprises a vital chronicle of rock ‘n’ roll history. To any fan of music or photography, this book will be a must-buy.
“Trusted by the stars to make them look good, O’Neill has captured the icons of music for over half a century… Terry O’Neill’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Album, collects a wealth of private moments and memories captured for eternity, with the likes of David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Amy Winehouse and even Elvis Presley all the subject of O’Neill’s immaculately placed lens. A life in pictures, a legacy in print. Pay heed to history!” – Simon Harper, Clash Magazine
Deceptively simple or fantastically intricate, ikat technique has been used for many centuries to create extravagant costumes and cloths of deep cultural meaning. The distinctively blurred, feathered or jagged patterns of ikat-dyed textiles are found across much of the world – from Japan in the east to Central and South America in the west, with vast areas of South-east Asia, India, Central Asia and the Middle East in between. The traditional patterns still hold cultural relevance today in significant parts of the long-established ikat-weaving areas. Textile artists and fashion designers in many and varied countries have taken ikat in new directions, respecting traditional forms and palettes while creatively diverging from them.
This is the first time all the different iterations of this textile have been comprehensively brought together in one volume, drawing from the wide-ranging collection of David Paly. It is a journey across the world through the lens of ikat.
George Byrne’s photography depicts the gritty urbanism of Los Angeles in sublime otherworldliness. Arriving a decade ago, the Australian artist was immediately enthralled by the sprawling cityscape of L.A., mesmerized by the way the sunlight transformed it, into two-dimensional, almost painterly abstractions. In his Post Truth series (2015–22), Byrne reassembles his photos of the urban landscape into striking, ascetic collages of color and geometric fragments, creating a postmodernist oasis in the metropolis. By masterfully harnessing the malleability of the photographic medium, the photographer situates his work in the space between real and imagined. Byrne’s compositions evoke associations with Miami Beach’s Art Deco, the Memphis Group’s designs, as well as the painting of David Hockney or Ed Ruscha, and at the same time tap into the aesthetics of today’s visual culture played out on Instagram.
“Read And Destroy the book that is. After years of archiving photos, scanning slides and looking for funding, a hardcover publication about the seminal UK skate magazine from the late ‘80s to mid- ‘90s can be in your hands very soon.” — Free Skateboard Magazine
“… an important piece of British skateboarding history that demands a space on your bookshelf.” — Slam City Skates London
For British skateboarders in the mid-’80s, RAD (aka Read and Destroy) was more than just a magazine. Before the X Games, before the internet, a whole generation of this once underground subculture relied on RAD to provide a beacon, bringing them together in spirit and in person.
Under the guidance of editor and chief photographer, Tim Leighton-Boyce, RAD took on an experimental, irreverent approach with a vibrant, chaotic energy. The legacy of the magazine is an action-packed photo archive documenting a unique time, place and attitude, capturing the death and rebirth of skateboarding as it evolved into a mainstay of extreme sports and street culture the world over.
This book reveals that archive in all its glory, offering an inside view of skateboarding and youth culture from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, told primarily through the experiences of the British skate photographers at the core of the magazine’s original editorial team.